Name: Balsam of Honey for a Cough
Ingredients: 1 ounce balsam of tulu; 1 teaspoon gum storax; 16 grains purified opium; 4 ounces honey; 1 pint rectified spirits of wine

Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Balsam of Honey for a Cough

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a jar.
Let the mixture digest for a week.
Strain the mixture before use.
Take 1 to 2 teaspoons, 3 to 4 times a day.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Honey + spirittop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Honey + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutanoic acid ethyl ester (sweet, green).